Today I fell across a website that was kind of neat.

I needed to create a quick background for something and after a "2 second google" I found "Grad Color". Grad Color is an online gradient color creator.

It's awesome to see so many tools online.

I thought I would post it. So you can find the Gradient Color creator here.

Just found this on Yahoo's website.

It's reported that there is a huge security hole in Apple iPhone and it could result in massive amounts of phones being hacked.

According to the article Collin Mulliner will publicize their findings. Essentially by sending a text message, they were able to take complete control over any smart phone's functionality. 

Imagine!

Someone could dial numbers on your phone, visit websites, turning on the camera... and who knows what. I'd say the who knows what is the scary part.

The only defense appears to be turning off the phone.

A warning sign for this hack is receiving a text message with a single square character. They suggest turning your phone off. "Quickly" is the exact quote.

Read the article here:
How to hijack 'every iPhone in the world'

 This morning, I got an email from waynekrantz.com, a fan mailing list I subscribed to long ago.

Hadn't received an email from that list in a long time. Too long in fact. Wayne Krantz is a truely great guitar player from NYC and some of his trio recordings have been favorites of mine for some time.

I remember reading that the trio was on hiatus and I was disappointed by the news.

But this morning... what a great surprise. Seems as though the trio is alive once again!

They are releasing an album and are called "Krantz Carlock Lefebvre".

Here they are at the Montreal Drum fest in 2005... Keith making a little noise.

 I love these guys.

I'm pleased to have my new site online!

The last week and a half, I've been reading and thinking, reading and thinking... all about how I can try to create a second income online.

The point of this excercise isn't to get rich quick. The point isn't even to be "rich" in strickly financial terms.

The reason for this new website and this new journey is to experience something new. I enjoy doing research and I love trying new things. This is part of it. Of course, I do have a goal. And my goal is to try and generate a bit of revenu by doing something I love.

But there is also opportunity to learn, to face new challenges, to meet new people and to share what I find. Share useful information to anyone looking to do the same, share my successes, share my failures... share my experience!

This website will continu to be more "personal".

But my new website will be a blog about trying to create income online.

Join me and let me know what you think!

www.yvesarsenault.com/

Another aspect of putting together a Wordpress blog that I didn't mention in the last blog post is looking for a theme.

It wasn't mentioned in my last writing, but I've already spent a couple of hours looking through different websites and running some Google Searchs to find a theme that I would be fairly content with. I'll likely make some small modifications once I do find the one I'm gonna go with. And so far I believe I've found one that's a strong possibility.

(How about changing this blog's layout???? - I've been wanting to for a while)

;-)

What are my credentials for a theme? Well, I'm looking for something that's about the colour that I want.... a blue as the main colour although I'm still not %100 decided on the colour. Sometimes it helps to see a bunch of themes to help me "clear the path" to the ultimate decision.

Other then the colour, I've been searching for an SEO friendly theme and I've found a few sites that offer SEO friendly themes. I'm not looking for anything really flashy, but something that is easy to navigate and generally nice to look at.

Still enjoying the journey so far.

 As a followup to my last piece on building websites to generate income I thought I'd write a few words on where I've started.

So far I haven't created these sites. Not yet.

One site will require some programming, actually quite a bit of programming and I'm not sure I'm ready to spend the time doing that right away.

I've spent some time thinking about what I'm gonna write about (for those that I will be the main blogger). These are all subjects that interest me quite a bit and I think I will enjoy trying to research and write on these subjects. Plus, it gives me a chance to work on my writing skills which is a good thing for sure. There is motivation on my part for a variety of reasons.

While I've spent time thinking about the content or subjects, I've also had to spend time thinking about domain names. I find this particularly challenging in part because there are so many "domain name bootleggers" who've scrapped up many keyword rich domain names. But luckily I've found a couple and will likely brainstorm a bit more before I begin.

I've also already spent many hours finding blogs and websites that focus on some of these subjects.

Time already invested and I'm enjoying it so far.

Lately I've been spending quite a bit of time on the internet. Well, I always do... but in the last week I've started to explore some websites that I've never really taken time and effort to discover.

What I've wanted to learn is different methods of building traffic driven websites. One of the goals in this would be to create another income stream.

But I also have been very skeptical of many website's that I've seen where someone is showing me "fool proof methods" to make oodles and oodles of money online. Some will even say that it's very easy and can happen really quickly.

I'm not a big believer in those kinds of messages as I feel they're really just giving people a "make money quick" scheme that likely even hasn't worked for them. Or, maybe it is working for them just because they're generating lots of traffic because of the (almost) empty message they're giving.

I've always been interested in building a few projects online and trying to build a revenu stream with them but was generally not to sure which way to turn.

In the last week I've spent some time looking for bloggers and online entrepreneurs who write about developping blogs and/or other types of websites that generate revenu.

What I've found this last week was quite refreshing. I've found some people who blog about creating money from affiliate programs and google adsense. These websites have been very beneficial to me in short term because I've learned something from them in a matter of hours... reading blog articles and also watching youtube videos (which were quite helpful).

These websites that I've found also have a much more sobering and real message. That it can be done. You can earn money online. But it's gonna take some hard work, some patience and it has to be something you're going to enjoy.

That's a much more realistic message in my opinion. So one of these projects is going to be a blog where I will be writing specifically about what I learn, what challenges I've found, what successes I have and generally what the experience is like.

This whole "Erin Andrews" thing got me thinking.

If anyone hasn't heard what happened to miss Andrews, someone essentially peeped on her privacy and filmed her while she didn't know about it. The resulting video was posted online on the internet.

I'm a 34 year old man at the writing of this blog article. When I heard this story one thing came to mind.

How would I feel if miss Andrews was my daughter?

Can you guess what the answer is??

Let's just say I would be VERY upset. And that might be putting it lightly.

Essentially someone has stolen a part of miss Andrews dignity. I can only imagine how this would make someone feel. Sure, some people might even react in different ways but for someone who wants their privacy and finds this a gross intrusion upon their very person how hurtful could this be and what could it be compared to.

Really, I think it would be easier for her or for most people to have their jewlery stolen... or a car... You know, some of these crimes (yes, this is a crime against miss Andrews) can scar people long term. Could miss Andrews develop paranoid tendencies? Severely paranoid?

I mean one can only imagine.

What kind of society do we live in when someone can intrude and steal a person's dignity and now have other people enjoy and be pleasured by it?

Sounds sick doesn't it?

That's because it is.

The point of writing this isn't to point the finger, blame people or say we should all be angels... .because I doubt we can. But in order to become "better" people or "better" collectively... then these problems must be seriously looked at and acknowledged both individually and collectively.

It's important and good to think and reflect on things sometimes.

I only wish the best to miss Andrews through all of this.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of doing a short drum clinic for Music Rocks Academy in Summerside.

I was invited by Moe Hashie, one of the Academy's instructors, to give an hour long drum clinic.

So I talked a bit about warm up excercises and some of the stuff that I've practiced over the years and currently practice. I took some questions about influences and favorite drummers. It was fun.

Got to see some faces I hadn't seen in quite a while. It was a fun time.

Played some grooves... Moe asked me to play some faster stuff, so I played around the kit a bit faster and talked about playing around the kit getting the motion of the body smooth.... talked about stick control a bit as well. So I played a pattern around the kit slowly and gradually sped it up.... which in fact I had to do a bit to get it going faster. Playing on someone else's setup is always a bit different..... when the toms are a couple of inchs off where you are a customed to, it makes a difference.

Finally, a couple of the guitar instructors got up on the stage and we had a little jam. Played Crazy Train, Enter Sandman and Moby Dick (which I hadn't heard in a long long time).

It was a fun time.

I must say that I, as many I'm sure, was surprised when I heard the news that Michael Jackson had been rushed to a hospital for cardiac arrest....

I was working... actually, I believe I was taking a lunch break when the news broke on CNN.

As time went on they got more updates.... to where he was in a coma... and then that he had passed away.

Wow.

He was in fact trying to make a bit of a come back to sold out shows this summer.

Very hard to believe that he had passed quite suddenly.

But, as a couple of days passed, I started thinking a little more about him.... as I had before. About how he grew up, what he had possibly gone through being an international star... what people had accused him of.... and the constant bashing of him in certain media outlets for quite some time.

The fact of his passing became less surprising... really. I don't know (or didn't) know the guy. But I do know that being through what he had been through would have been rough.

I try to let the kids be kids. Really. I love seeing my daughter learn and discover.... and play. She's 5 years old. She has talents.... I know that... she even has musical and dancing talents. But I would never imagine of getting her to work at performing. No way. She's got to be a child while she is in fact a child. I can't imagine attempting to force her to be at a stage where she is not.

Mr Jackson had quirks.... for sure. In fact, I'm sure we've all had things in our closet (to varying degrees)... and many still do.

But I can't imagine the kind of pressures that were put on this guy... from childhood... and though he was loved and adored by many... seemed totally reclusive and lonely.

One interview I saw of him... he talks about being about 10 years old and being in the recording studio for hours... and at times watching kids playing in a park across the street and crying because he would have loved so much to be a part of that.

How far would you be willing to push your child for your own wants/needs/desires??

Mr Jackson obviously wanted to be a child while he was a child. He needed to be a child while he was a child.

Kids need to be loved. And they need to be kids.

Mr Jackson had great musical talent... a gift everyone saw early on.... but the focus many had on that gift for their own gain robbed him of his childhood..... and in part having a whole life. The focus was on developping the gift and delivering the gift instead of developping the person... the child in this case.

That is my opinion.

Your kids need love. And they need to be kids.